The information I have gathered
on the so-called "Turks" is due to an attempt to locate the original ancestors
of my Indian community here in northwest
Florida. Isham Scott, Absalom Scott, Joseph Scott, Moses Manning,
John 'Capt. Jack' Ayers, and Henry Stephens moved down here in 1828
from
Sumter, SC.

The only 'oral tradition' that
exists in my family is that we originated from Indians. No one ever mentions
our white ancestors (although it's obvious that we are far from full-bloods).
I descend from the Isham Scott family and the James Moses family who lived
in Sumter from 1810 to about 1820, after moving down from Halifax NC and
then moving on to
Florida. The Moses family lived about 10 households down from
the Benenhaleys in
Providence, Sumter.

-------------------------- Benenhaleys -------------------------

All the documents that were forwarded to me (even pre-1900 documents) point
to the fact that Joseph Benenhaley was a man of "Arabic ancestry"..he was most
likely mixed Turkish and who knows what else. The Benehaleys intermarried
with the Scott, Oxendine, and others, and these families are, without question,
of Native Indian ancestry. It is documentable that the Scott family came
down from Halifax, NC and the Oxendines from Robeson.

I believe the most relevant fact about the 'Turks" is to analyze the very
essence of what made them considered different from the other residents of
Sumter, SC. Were they discriminated against for being Arabic? Were their
schools listed as seperate Arabic schools? Were their churches referred to
as Arabic churches by the local townfolk? The answer is obvious. A 'Turk'
in Sumter was a person generally considered by the local townsfolk to bear
Indian blood, and lived seperately geographically and socially from whites
and blacks in the area. It is a fact that one family did have a Middle Eastern
ancestor, and because of this the whole community was given the label of
"Turks", yet this is not the deciding factor in determining what a "Turk"
was or is. One would have to look at the ancestry of the majority of the
community, and the perception of the community's ancestry by the surrounding
populace.

I do recognize that the weight of evidence suggests that Joseph Benenhaley
was most likely of "Arabic ancestry" and was most likely Turkish and because
of the Benenhaley family being one of the most prominant, that "Turk" label
was generically applied to the whole mixed-blood community at Sumter. The Scott, Oxendine, Deas, and others also connect to these Indians and
do not have any Arabic ancestry.

The "Yusef Ben Ali" reference
seems to me to have plausably originated with Brewton Berry (1960's), and
even he said "Joseph Benenhaly...possibly Yusef Ben Ali" as he tried to make
a case for possible Arab ancestry to justify the Turk label. If his name
had actually been "Yusef Ben Ali" I believe it would have appeared as such
on some, if not all, of the documentation (census, court, land etc.). Brewton
Berry also misrepresented that the 1790 petition of "Sundry Free Moors" came
from the Turks (which it did not...I have also seen this falsehood recounted
in other books, and on the net as truth) and Berry mentioned the old 1820's
case involving a voting dispute and referred to him as "Joseph Benenhaley".
I'm sure if those old records had mentioned Joseph claiming his name was
originally "Yusef" and he was Arabic, that
Berry would have surely quoted it. (someone needs to get a
look at these old records and end this debate).

---------------- The Remainder of the "Turks" ----------------

The true history of the "Turks",
which can be verified by historical documentation, is that the majority are
of American Indian ancestry from a group of Algonquin and Siouan speaking
remnants who gathered at Fort Christianna on the Virginia/North Carolina
border.

A group of these English speaking,
Christianized Indian-White mixed-bloods was living in
Halifax,North
Carolina at the time of the Revolutionary War, and also maintained a village
among the Catawba at the NC/SC border (this village was called TURKEY TOWN).
There were several families identified as Indian connected to the Cheraw
and Catawba including the Scotts, Stephens, Browns, etc.

When Thomas Sumter's home in
Sumter was burned by British forces attempting to capture him, he headed
NORTH (not to the coast as some have said) to the North Carolina border
to muster men to form militias. It was here that Sumter first linked up with
these Indian mixed-bloods who readily joined him and caused much ruckus.
In "Colonel William Hill's Memoirs of the Revolution" written in 1815 and
edited by General Sumter sometime prior to his death in 1832, it is mentioned
that during the War "Sumter's Camp which was then on Indian Land on the East
side of the Catawba River." It is also documented that a sizable company
of Catawba Indians were mustered out under Captain Drennen to serve under
General Sumter. Included in this company of Indians was several Scott men
and one "Joebe" (maybe Joe Ben?).

By 1810 Halifax county was beginning
to fill up with white people, and the Catawba tribe had leased off almost
all of its land, and so, some of these Indians moved down to Sumter at the
invitation of the General. Scott, Benenhaley, Driggers, Oxendine, etc.
Indian families first appear on the records of
Sumter,
South Carolina in 1810, prior to that time they are identified as residing
at
Halifax
NC, or on the Catawba lands.

The story of the "Turks" descending from pirates, Arabs, Turkish
sailors, etc. all appears to have begun with the 1930's publications of several
ethnologists like Brewton Berry who interviewed local white people about
their theories as to where the "Turk" label originated. These fanciful
romanticized legends recounted by local townsfolk have since been recounted
as fact by present-day historians. A plausible theory as to where the "Turk"
label originated was from "Turkey Town Indians" shortened over time to "Turkey
Indians" to "Turks".

These same family members who
remained in Robeson, Warren, and
Halifax counties NC are now known as "Lumbee" and "Haliwa-Saponi"
Indians. Those of us who moved down here to
Florida
in 1828 are known as "Cheraw-Saponi" Indians. In 1857 several families from
here (northwest Florida) joined a 'wagon train' for
Louisiana and these families are now known as "RedBones". Though
we have all been labeled differently by our white and black neighbors, we
all descend from the same Indians.

What I have seen, and I believe
what you will find, is a reoccurring theme in regards to these descendants
of mixed-blood Christianized Indians from the Virginia/Carolina border:

EXAMPLE:
Someone questions the ancestry of one of these people, families, groups,
etc. and it starts up some kind of investigation (school enrollment, tax
status, voting privileges, etc.).

Local white people
are brought in to testify and they say some variance of the same theme "I
have known the insert name here family all my life. Their skin is
dark like a colored person, though their hair is different. It is said that
there is Negro in their blood, but they don't associate with Negroes."

The people in question
themselves always testify to some variation of the same thing...."My grandfather
insert name here was a white man and served in the
(Revolutionary/Civil/etc) War...his wife was insert name here and
she was a full blooded Indian. There is only White and Indian blood in my
veins and no other."

Before long, some well-meaning
historian, Professor, Anthropologist, etc. appears and says "You silly back
woods country people, these people are not mullatoes...they are a tri-racial
isolate...the reason they don't look like the stereotype of the Western Indian
is because they are the grandchildren of Portuguese sailors/Moorish
pirates/shipwrecked Italians/lost colony of Roanoke/etc."

Generations later, historians,
book writers, genealogists, etc. look at these records to get information
and recount any one of the above theories to explain the "proof" of the origins
of this "mysterious group of people". Even the descendants of the people
themselves gradually pick up the popular explanation and pass it on as "Oral
tradition".

You can find a variation of the
above with any remnant group in the south-east; Melungeons in
Tennessee, RedBones in
Louisiana, Lumbees, Issues,
Red Legs, Brass Ankles, Pond Shiners, Domminickers, and yes, even Turks.
The best advice a descendant of one of these groups can get is to not listen
to the stories, legends, exotic origin theories, etc. that are thrown out
by local people, historians, etc. Look for the actual documented evidence,
census records, and when it all boils down, listen to what your grandparents
and their parents said that their roots were.

The actual documentation does
not directly disagree with the oral tradition (though the oral tradition
should also be suspect unless it pre-dates 1900, as family members separated
from the Sumter core groups often read articles which "explained" their history
- this was common among Melungeon descendants who lived away from Tennessee,
read newspaper articles about their relatives, then would "testify" that
they descended from Portuguese, when the
Tennessee group kept saying "We are Indians").

The "Free Moor" petition was
credited to the Turks by Brewton
Berry in his book "Almost White" in the 1960's, where he
quoted Anne King Gregorie in her 1950's book "History of Sumter
County SC" and this misinformation has been repeated in countless newspaper,
magazine, and of course internet accounts. As far as I can tell, no one has
ever done the 'on the ground' hard core research on the "Turks" (actually
going to Sumter and looking
at old court cases, land records, interviewing elders, etc.) The
"Turks of Sumter County" and the "Free Moors" were not even in the same
location. The Free Moors were just north of Charleston, as documented in
the 1790 census.

My full legal
name is "Steven Pony Hill", I was named after my grandmothers brother "Albert
Pony Hill." I live in Blountstown, Florida...south of Marianna and
northeast of Panama City. The Bass side of my family (Alexander Bass) also
lived in Thomas County ,GA prior to the Civil War, then moved down to the
Ocala area (Marion Co.) then back up to Thomas Co. GA by 1900, then back
down to FL by 1920. Alexander was a documented descendant of the
Nansemond (Bass) and Cheraw-Saponi (Goins) Indians and his wife (Nora Holly)
was traditionally a full-blooded Indian as well. My g-g-grandmother was Elizabeth
Scott Hill who was born 1825 in Sumter, SC and is buried here at the
IndianCemetery at Scott's Ferry,
Florida.

TURK

The "Turk" surname was owned by a large family in the nearby counties of
Georgia...there is no implication that they were anything but white, and
they carried the surname over from England.

I believe there WAS a family connection between John N. Scott and Isham.
On the 1860 census there are three Scott households side-by-side: Isham Scott
and his wife Margaret; John N. Scott, then Henry Scott. John N. Scott had
a 12 year old son at that time named Isham Scott and a 4 year old daughter
named Margaret; Henry Scott had a 2 year old daughter named Margaret.

10 years earlier, John Scott appears in Granville Co. NC at Fishing Creek
District living next to William and Silas Pettiford. Abraham Scott, the first
cousin of Isham, had posted bond for Sewell Pettiford in Cumberland Co. NC
Court in 1842.

The weight of
evidence points to our ancestors being a group of eastern sioux and
related families who escaped "to the white settlements" for
protection during the Rev War. Prior to the War the Scott families
lived in two areas, at HalifaxNC
and on the Catawba Reservation. At the onset of the Rev War the
young Indian men fought for the NC/SC milita under Gen. Sumter and
the elederly and under-aged Indians went to the white settlements at
Henrico Virginia
for protection. After the War, some of the family members went back
to Halifax,
some back to the Catawba, and some settled on the Pee DeeRiver.

The oldest Scott Records I could find are regarding a William or
'Billy' Scott who was an elderly Indian in
HenricoVA
at the close of the War..he was most likely a Cheraw Indian married to
a Catawba Indian ( Jacob Scott was reported to be the 'nephew' of
General New River..his mother was New River's
sister) it is highly possible that he was the father of Isham Scott,
John Scott, Joseph Scott, Francis Scott, and Jacob Scott (these
given names continue to be repeated in each generation).